Perry Township: Officials believe M-16 is missing

Tuesday

PERRY TWP. - While disbanding their police department, Perry Township officials have discovered that one of the department's two military assault rifles might have gone missing.

Greg Fox, solicitor, said an inventory of township-owned police equipment turned up a shotgun and an M-16 military rifle. But there should have been two M-16s, according to a former supervisor and former police chief.

The M-16 is a military rifle capable of semi- and full automatic firing. It has been a mainstay military weapon of the United States and other nations since the Vietnam War era.

"They were for riot control and shootouts," former Supervisor Roy Magee, who was present at the township supervisors' meeting Tuesday, said about the assault rifles owned by the police department in Perry Township, a rural municipality with a population of below 2,000.

Magee and Jan Marshall, who served as both supervisor and secretary-treasurer, both said they thought the township owned two M-16 rifles.

Marshall, who resigned as secretary-treasurer in 2006, said one of her final inventories in that capacity indicated that the township possessed two rifles, but didn't specify what type they were.

David Hooker, who resigned as police chief in 2005, said the township owned two M-16 rifles and that the department had both weapons, as well as the shotgun, on hand when he stepped down.

If the township did lose an M-16, it could be a federal case. Ownership or possession of an M-16 is illegal for most civilian purposes.

Perry Township officials found one M-16 and the shotgun as part of an inventory taken after the police department was disbanded in April.

Township supervisors dissolved the department after its four officers announced their intention to unionize through the United Steelworkers of America.

The township has disposed of the police department's computer hard drives and has turned over its files to District Attorney John Bongivengo, according to township officials.

Supervisor Guy Geissler said Perry Township might try to sell the shotgun to another police department. It would be illegal to sell that weapon for civilian use.

Although the township could sell the M-16 it has in its possession to another department, Geissler said local officials intend to turn it over to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Both of the two remaining weapons are still in the township's possession.

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